1 Answer
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You should first run update, then upgrade. Neither of them automatically runs the other.

apt-get update updates the list of available packages and their versions, but it does not install or upgrade any packages.

apt-get upgrade actually installs newer versions of the packages you have. After updating the lists, the package manager knows about available updates for the software you have installed. This is why you first want to update.

You only want to do dist-upgrade when you want to upgrade to a new OS release (RARE), not just upgrade packages. upgrade is much more common and is usually what you want, unlike what @fdierre said.
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Travis RApr 16 '14 at 18:33

3

@TravisR Not really. dist-upgrade won't upgrade to a new OS, but will upgrade to a new kernel (common enough) or a different set of dependencies (common enough) or remove dependencies that don't matter after an upgrade (also common). If you're on a home or office system, most of the time you want dist-upgrade, not upgrade. It's if you are upgrading several systems, or one that you need kept in a well-defined state that you'd want upgrade. For "regular" users (their own machine), dist-upgrade is the one to go for.
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Jon HannaApr 25 '14 at 22:08

So do you mean that "apt-get upgrade" will do nothing if not followed by "apt-get update"? If this is so, what is the real use of "apt-get update"? Then why the "update" is not included in "upgrade"?
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user22180Nov 8 '14 at 20:36